When we were starting out at City to Sea it was all hands on deck, but we didn’t have much in the way of budget coming in. So having just moved to Bristol and after 15 years I went back to waiting tables. Which was a shock to the system, I remembered it being easy?! Hard work yes, but in an easy way. It wasn’t. If you underestimate waiting tables, you’ve never done it!

During my interview at TGIs in 2015 I let my manager knew I was preventing plastic pollution, she was really encouraging and Friday’s welcomed me to the team. Giving me all the flexibility I needed to work on City to Sea. It also gave me the opportunity to encourage change, on a massive scale. So when Karen Forrester, the CEO was paying a store visit in 2016 I made sure I was there to chat with her … (I wasn’t missing that chance!) Karen was attentive took on what I said and we then conversed over email.

I then followed up that conversation with her manager, area manager and the right people at HQ, and now in just a couple of weeks single use plastic straws will be a thing of the past in TGI Friday’s UK!!

There’s always more large restaurants can do, but this is a fantastic start and may prompt other large chains to follow, and TGI Friday’s across the globe … How can they not?!

I left TGI Friday’s last Summer, after two years of waiting tables in the evenings and at weekends. I’m grateful to TGIs for all the support they gave me, and the friend’s I made there. Not to mention them ditching single use plastic straws!! 🙌🙌🙌

Like this:

We’ve been working on ‘unflushables’ at City to Sea. Plastic that’s flushed down the toilet. which is kinda physically flushable – there’s a lot that fits down a toilet if you give it a go! But that’s not to say it should be …

Walked down any beach and what do you find? Cotton bud sticks. Cotton bud sticks that are flushed down the toilet and make their merry way to the ocean. Yep that’s where lots of flushed products end up! It’s not just cotton buds … Watch the film for some mind blowing figures!

Hands up, I was a flusher! I watched my Mum flush, I followed. Tampons were the main culprit. It wasn’t until living in Portugal where even toilet roll was a no no (we had a septic tank not on the mains) that I stopped. Then in 2008 I switched my menstural products as they came wrapped in plastic, hands up once more – I didn’t know the actual tampon was plastic!

To raise awareness of flushing we’ve made a few films. This is by far my favourite and our most popular. With 2.7 millions views on facebook (1.1 million in the first week!) it’s hit a cord.

We had a lot of fun making this. Friend’s helped out, acting and offering their daughter to act to! (She was so easy to work with, and up for more acting work get in touch if you’d like me to hook you up) Another lent us his stunning kitchen. I wanted to create juxtaposition within the scene. I also wanted it to be the younger generation teaching the older … As I notice around me this is what’s happening! While it also meant more younger people would share it it being this dynamic.

Like this:

I’m a big fan of Rob Greenfield, so it was a dream come true, to not only hear him speak (twice!) but speak with him, and put him up for a week!

Rob’s an adventurer, environmental activist, humanitarian, and dude making a difference. He is dedicated to leading the way to a more sustainable and just world.

Check him out, he’s a total inspiration, with more projects than you can shake a stick at! He’s doing it all, cycling across America on a bamboo bike not plugging into any power, wearing a months worth of rubbish around New York, living in a tiny house, as well as putting out videos that go viral, sharing the good work of others. He really lives it, he is a dude making a difference.

So to hear Rob speak in Totnes arranged by Earth.Food.Love was great. To make the chance to speak alongside him in Bristol, and put him up and get to know him was awesome! Food Cycle wanted to host him, so we got together and put on an event, and they put on the food.

It was quite something to have such an experience speaker such as Rob to give me such praise.

Your talk was engaging, with the right balance of personal story, emotion and solutions.

There were people there from Greenpeace, who were equally positive. It seams I’m getting the hang of this public speaking lark!

It’s really an honour to be able too, to people and let them know my story, and how living PALL with less plastic is possible and what we can achieve. To do that alongside Rob Greenfield, was a dream come true!